Ever heard of "the masked load Issue?" With the rising penetration of distributed energy resources (DER), primarily distributed photovoltaics (PV), system operators are blind to the load they need to prepare for to manage system trips after a system fault or extreme weather conditions change. The risks to grid reliability and resiliency are a critical industry issue.

The PV Integration using a Virtual Airgap (PIVA) project is funded by The Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office to address the issue. Host utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Qualus are in the project's demonstration phase, the result of three years of progress. SDG&E has highlighted PIVA in California's High DER Proceeding.

PIVA has already had to address a myriad of challenges. How does the utility acquire the behind-the-meter data technically and legally? What statistical and AI methods are needed to deal with inherently noisy data? How does a utility integrate the cyber-secure cloud-based PIVA system into their DMS/ADMS? What is the value a PIVA-type approach provides to a utility operationally? 

This panel, composed of the core team leaders of the PIVA project, will present and discuss these questions, the findings of the three-year project, and the demonstration phase's learnings--some unexpectedly not technical but customer-based. Attendees will gain insight into the multi-faceted challenges that PIVA addresses and an understanding of the approaches being demonstrated via PIVA for DER integration into utility operations to solve the masked load issue reliably.